Mike Holloway leaned over the slippery metal railing at USF Track and Field Stadium before raising his fist and pointing at the track.
Clear skies covering USF Track and Field Stadium on Friday turned to floods of heavy rain accompanied by bright flashes of lightning. It was the second day that the weather delayed the last event for UF’s men’s and women’s track and field teams, but for the second time, another Florida qualifier for NCAA Outdoor Championships was the result.
Forty-seven individuals entered the NCAA East Preliminary for Florida hoping to perform well enough to earn an outdoor national championship berth for the Gators.
Before donning their gray SEC Champions shirts, members of Florida’s track and field teams wore t-shirts with two large, blue words scribbled across the front.
It came down to the final competition.
Execute.
It was throw number five of the men’s hammer throw final.
Yanis David had been working for this moment all season.
Kyren Hollis curled his fingers around his black baton as his arms pumped faster and faster. Kentucky’s sprinter was on his heels threatening to snatch the lead from the junior as the two approached the finish line almost simultaneously.
They spend hours each day preparing.
The events at the Tom Jones Memorial unfolded like many of the Gators’ previous meets have this season.
The gleam of the sun bounced from the seams of Grant Holloway’s blue uniform as he and the cluster of cameras following him made their way across the grass to coach Mike Holloway. The athlete leaned forward as his right hand collided with the left hand of his coach.
After a four-match road trip, the No. 10 Florida men’s tennis team finally returns home on Friday for the final match of the regular season.
UF’s men’s and women’s track and field teams have been preparing for the Tom Jones Memorial as if it were an away meet.
Lloydricia Cameron waited four years to hear her name called over the speakers at James G. Pressly Stadium.
KeAndre Bates had the crowd banging its hands together.
Cory Poole rounded the corner of the wet track with no one near him.
Immediately following his second place finish in the men’s 400 meter, Christian Taylor made his way across the blue track at James G. Pressly Stadium and found coach Mike Holloway.
The majority of Florida’s track and field athletes are in Gainesville this week preparing for the Pepsi Florida Relays at the Percy Beard Track.
Chantz Sawyers strolled over to teammate Grant Holloway with his head high, his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face. Holloway could only answer by hugging the freshman and raising his hands. It was an underclassmen versus upperclassmen split between the Gators’ men’s 4x400 relay teams, and Sawyers’ group, consisting of three freshmen and one sophomore, topped the two other teams of veterans.
Solutions by The State News
